Hello all,
My general comments about the charter draft can be summarized in two
points. You will not be surprised to know that I strongly believe
this document needs:
1. shorter sentences
2. clear concise statement of mission and goals
The document we delivered under the first charter was opaque and very
hard to follow and/or make sense of. I have shared the "Improving
Government..." doc far and wide and have yet to get anyone who is not
part of the W3C - not one person - to read the whole thing. They
get bogged down in jargon and circular arguments.
If we are serious about having a global impact, we must dedicate
ourselves to modeling the kind of communications we encourage from
governments. To me that means clarity above all. Open language - by
which I mean statements that are focused, pointed and as jargon-free
as possible - is every bit as important as open data. In this case
it really is important that we "talk the talk" of open communications
that are understandable to all citizens. And the bonus is that we
will think more clearly as a result.
Here are examples of mission statements from other groups:
- The mission of the Protocols and Formats Working Group is to
increase the support for accessibility in Web specifications.
- The mission of the HTML Working Group is to continue the evolution
of HTML (including classic HTML and XML syntaxes).
- The mission of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working
Group is to develop guidelines to make Web content accessible for
people with disabilities.
- The mission of the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences
Interest Group, is to develop, advocate for, and support the use of
Semantic Web technologies for life science, translational medicine,
and health care.
Here is ours:
The mission of the eGovernment Interest Group is to explore how to
improve access to government through better use of the Web and
achieve better government transparency using open Web standards at
any government level (local, state, national and multi-national).
There are too many subclauses, in my opinion and the entire statement
is far too qualified. Is our ultimate goal - our mission - really
only to "explore how to improve" these things? and do we have a dual
mission...we also want to achieve "better...transparency"? Are we
assuming that transparency is in place and we only need to make it
"better"? My preference would be to express these two things in one
unified mission statement. And do we not at some point want to
develop recommendations, best practices, educational materials,
shared models, etc?
The mission statement is only the most obvious place where clarity is
needed. I know that many will think that I am harping on the same
old point about language, and I am sorry to be so tedious. But we
ignored the need for clarity in the "Improving Gov..." document and I
do not think we want to go forward without making a strong and
serious commitment to plain language as a principle. I also think
that one of our first goals must be to rewrite the first document
with that principle in mind.
In 2007, I worked with a group of government, academic and technology
advocates to develop a ten point statement of principles known as the
"Manifesto on Usability and Accessibility for Mexican Government
Websites" Read it here
http://www.uaweb.org.mx/en/documents/manifesto for an example of how
we might model our approach to promoting the use of the web as a tool
to support more truly democratic and open government processes.
Thanks for your consideration,
Sharron
At 07:43 PM 6/8/2009, Novak, Kevin wrote:
>All,
>
>As Jose mentioned, please try to take a look at the draft tomorrow
>(Tuesday) and share your thoughts via email. I would like to discuss
>with you all on the call Wednesday.
>
>Cheers,
>Kevin
>
>Kevin Novak
>Vice President, Integrated Web Strategy and Technology
>The American Institute of Architects
>1735 New York Avenue, NW
>Washington, DC 20006
>
>Voice: 202-626-7303
>Cell: 202-731-0037
>Twitter: @novakkevin
>Fax: 202-639-7606
>Email: kevinnovak@aia.org
>Website: www.aia.org
>
>
>AIA NAMED BEST ASSOCIATIONS WEBSITE FOR THE 12th ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS!
>
>America's Favorite Architecture Tops the Shortlist for International
>Honor for the Web
>
>The American Institute of Architects is the voice of the
>architectural profession and the resource for its members in service
>to society.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: public-egov-ig-request@w3.org
>[mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Jose M. Alonso
>Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 6:40 PM
>To: eGov IG
>Subject: first rough draft of 2nd charter
>
>All,
>
>It's available at:
>
> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Charter2
>
>Thanks Kevin for drafting this one.
>
>This is still a very rough draft and needs discussion. Please, do not
>edit in place just yet but discuss in the mailing list first.
>
>Best,
>Jose.
>
>--
>Jose M. Alonso <josema@w3.org> W3C/CTIC
>eGovernment Lead http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/
>
>
>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.58/2164 - Release Date:
>06/08/09 17:59:00